Well i'v not read what everyone is saying in this post but I will tell u what I think of the game seeing as I was one of the Beta Testers and played the full game for the free month.
its not a easy game u can't just go in and become superman over night it can be a hard game lots of killing and getting exp to level if u don't set up at macro like most do u get bord after a while like I did.
Its a crafters Haven u can make loads of stuff and [I still keep up to date with patchs] its getting better with dye and stuff
Its a complex game Theres loads of schools to join once u pass a skill level u realy have to read up on it before joining any realy I mean u can join all of them but makes it harder tp level them up because ur ratting goes up [Your Overall Level | Not Your School Level]
The graphics while ok are not great AC2 has better and this game only just came out but was being made for longer the world is huge and looks good its when u look at player models it gets let down. Saying that the magic effects are great I realy liked them
Lets hope when they update AC1 is looks better then this )
Dreigns Old Beta Tester - AC1,AC2,JumpGate,Earth&Beyound,Horizons,Wish,The Saga of Ryzom,Lineage II
Dreigns Old Beta Tester - AC1,AC2,JumpGate,Earth&Beyound, Horizons,Wish,The Saga of Ryzom, Lineage II,City Of Heroes
I dont reccomend it, all it is is leveling up, and crafting. Which I found really boring really fast. I would reccomend waiting for something like WoW or Guild Wars. Those games sound RAD!
While I still would NOT yet recommend Horizons, and I'm not subscribed to it again myself, I think that in fairness I should mention that AE is making noticeable improvements.
I'm reading that combat is improving quite a bit, and AE is currently tweaking additional exp bonuses. You'll want to keep your eye on this because they could easily turn this into something that's more of a pain than a gain.
Dragons have also appeared to be getting a lot of loving, though based on what I've been reading I wouldn't yet say that they're worth playing. Adult dragons still hit softer than a biped for example - but, they have removed automatic hoard drain and it now only drains when you use special attacks. For example, Vital Strike is now called Silver Strike (if I recall correctly) and each use of the attack consumes "X" ammount of hoard.
High hoard value items are also going to be added to the game and are apparently on blight. These items may be rare drops.
The caveat : Take the pathetically low damage out put of dragon melee damage and add that with the need to use special attacks to do any meaningful damage to your target, and you have a situation where you are still going to be consuming hoard on a nearly constant basis. The high hoard value drops MAY help, but their drop rate may be too infrequent to off set the large drain.
So, in essence, the dragons may still be in the same boat that they've always been in, only with a bit more interactivity and planning during a fight. However, I am not playing and this is only my perception of what I read. How I interpret information given, and how it actually plays out, may be completely different from one another.
Ask your friendly neighborhood subscribed dragon for more specific details.
The ultimate point to all of this is that AE - whether it be by desperation or accident bathroom slippage - are apparently doing a complete 180 and SEEM to be heading in a good direction.
Will it be enough to compare to WoW and EQ 2? Personally, I don't think so, but that's the lovely thing about opinions...
New here but I thought I would put my 2 cents in...
I have played UO, AC1, Evercrack, Anarchy online, Starwars galaxies......
the only game I played longer than 3 months is AC... I don't know if any of you guys remeber AC in the early days... but it was a great game.... great concept.. great system... the graphics where poor but the gamplay made up for it.... even on 56k never had to much of a lag issue.....
and then they nerfed everything.... I quit AC...
I played SWG.... had almost mastered architect..... but the economy was shot to hell.... and then they nerfed architects...... I quit SWG....
I have only been playing horizons for 5 days so far on the 7 day trial.... but I am not going to cancel my subscription...
The game so far is in-depth in everything the other games are lacking... The quests are varried, and sometimes very difficult to complete. (adds to the fun) There is multiclassing and mastering... I have a level 14 dryad on shadow... who is also a level 9 druid, level 5 cleric, level 5 warrior.... not all the skills from the different classes carry over... but it is very nice to be able to heal yourself......
I duno... I was very hopefull for this game quit a while ago... while it was still in development... I even joined a Pre-Guild....
Yes... this game probably should still be in beta for a few of the things listed above...
But I would definitly rate this one higher than all the rest of the games I have played so far... with the exception of AC early on if the graphics of AC where the same as horizons...
Ohh and the music is killer....... very very well done....
As long as I have been staff here at MMORPG.COM I have come to realize something about MMORPG's. A lot of the games are pushed ahead of schedule without a lot of the implementation of their presented features. As i've noticed, the reasoning behind that behavior is mainly a financial quo
Because of this trend (Pushing games out before they're "Complete") that the market now shares most of the games truly aren't complete on the market for 6-8 months after going live. I would say that if you are highly interested in a game and it was distasteful at first, then I would hold off on having a complete view of the game until you try back after 6-8 months of it being on the market.
Anarchy Online, Asherons Call 2, ShadowBane, SWG (which still has some issues yet) and the original EverQuest. These are a few big name games that really didn't come out of their hiding place for a long while, their start was rocky but then it peaked. So, just give the game some time and then judge it!
- MMORPG.COM -
KillerTwinkie - That one guy who used to mod mmorpg.com's forums.
Played the game for 2 Months, just too many bugs and other problems. Now they are offering the game for free for a 7 day time frame. Don't waste your time on it, currently only 300-400 players on each server, I give it at the most 1 year and it'll be gone.
Originally posted by killerTwinkie I would say that if you are highly interested in a game and it was distasteful at first, then I would hold off on having a complete view of the game until you try back after 6-8 months of it being on the market.
I can see how that could be the case for some games, depending on the aspects that are distasteful. There are bugs, class balances, and performance issues to work out, though I doubt they'll ever fix text overlay so it doesn't kill your FPS. But there are also times when there are aspects of a game you find distasteful that deal with the mechanics and design of the game. While I still watch the Horizons forums, in hopes they will turn things around, and I can regain my few friends still left in game, I think the design of the game will ever keep me from completely enjoying it.
Horizons was the second game that I played "hardcore" from the start and stayed with for at least a few months. The other was Shadowbane. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed SB much more and had a much tougher time giving it up, even when I wasn't really enjoying myself. The reason for it was two-fold, PvP and customization. I don't think that PvP is necessary in an MMORPG, but it at least gives players something to do. In HZ, once you get to high levels, there is nothing to do but to start a new class, potentially gimping yourself once the softcap is raised, or start a new character. If there was PvP in HZ, which the FAQs still mention they are developing as a seperate module, it would at least give people something to do. As it stands, to keep people interested, they add in a new quest or event every week or two, but generally they only occupy people for a day or two, and sometimes only for a few hours.
Even more important is the ability to customize your character. As it stands, multiclassing is the only real way of specialization in HZ, and most people specialize the same way (cleric or healer as a secondary class to everything else). You get one training point per level, which increases 1 stat that's automatically getting raised by 7-11 a level. For most those who have played since release, self-sufficiency is the key. Large groups generally kill adventuring XP, and crafters generally multiclass to become self-sufficient for the long grinding process. With a mulitude of skills from multiclassing, there really isn't a challenge in the game, which further encourages soloing. It results in turning a cooperative, non-PvP game into a SP game with chat windows. And those chats were almost entirely lowbies asking for gear or ooc.
On a side note, despite the crafting focus of Horizons, players had more control of the economy in Shadowbane. To put things in perspective, I took 7 crafting classes above L50 in HZ(1 resourcing, 3 end goods, 3 building classes), making me the highest rated crafter on the server at the time. In SB, I ran one of the best stocked towns (all vendors, no trainers, all fully levelled, mostly dwarven smiths). While both markets seemed broken (rapid inflation after the first month or two), in part due to neither having an armor decay system (SB allowed items to get "permanently" damaged, but would repair themselves after server reboots), the process in SB was at least more enjoyable, trying to roll items people might want to purchase, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, and creating markup schemes on vendors. HZ involved almost all taking orders for specific items, then either dropping what you were doing to go make them, or trying to meet up with someone later. Without adequate storage space every held order becomes painful. A lot of people seem to claim that HZ is more of a crafting game than an adventuring game, which is true, but the implication that you'd like this game if you like crafting seems completely off to me.
One final comment about HZ, one that I think could possibly be fix, but probably won't be, is the distribution of mobs and resources. There are multiple areas for tier1, at the noob island and around some of the NPC towns. The tier2 resources are located almost entirely an Minor Aradoth, with a few here and there on the main island. With tier3, everything is around Harro. Tier4 is located all SE of ML. Mobs are a little more spread out, but generally all high level mobs are in the same general area. With the Dragon RoP and the western Deadlands, this has changed a little bit, but as of a month ago, most high level XPing was done either doing "Kill 30 Cursed Wolves" quests over and over, or hunting down the handful of L80 mobs in the Eastern Deadlands. In other games, you can find pockets of mobs here and there, different zones with a variety of different level mobs, but here it's just lacking. Many people have stated before that it is a large, but empty world. To elaborate on that, it's a empty world with a lot of mountains which force you to take one path or another, limiting your options as to where to go. You shouldn't be forced to go to one place in the world, while walking along the same path to get there, just bcause you want to level.
HZ is a mediocore game at best. But really its a very shallow game. It has no character no depth and if you scratch past the surface there is NOTHING of substance there.
The adventuring system reminds me of whack a mole. No immersion no atmosphere and the Withered Aegis is a poor attempt at creating a dynamic foe for the playerbase to battle in place of PVP which their engine can't handle. There are perhaps 6 mob models total in the game and after awhile you are just fighting higher versions of the same mob you did at 20. There is NOTHING for the level 80 plus adventurer in the game. The new combat system has helped a bit but it still doesnt resolve the reptitiveness and boring factor of combat. There are no tactics in this game its just all clicking.
The crafting system is a joke. One sword is the same as the other. Nothing is unique and a level 85 Crafter in one school is the same as a level 100 crafter in that same school. The tricking system for weapons ? dont go by istaria.com there NOT millions of combinations for different looks. There are at most 18 per weapon ( tier III and up nothing for tier 1 and II ) and at the very least 2 or 3 on the low end a far far far cry from what they claim it to be. Armor customization ? not in game yet and I doubt they will ever add that because quite frankly their game engine CANNOT handle the added stress. You can now dye your armor but the process of just getting the dye is enough to turn most people off to the task. The crafting system is as follows. You gather a resource from a number of resource fields in the game this entails standing there wacking at a resource node and depending on your skill in gathering that particular resource will determine how much you get per whack. This by far will encompass 98 percent of your crafting... yes yes the fan twits of the game will try and tell you other wise but I put on 520 levels in crafting in that game I am more qualified than most in that game to tell you all what its like... you will SPEND 98 percent of your time gathering resources. Its pretty simple and no real danger in doing it.. pretty dumbed down system and nothing like the immersiveness of UO or WoW for getting resources. Once you have gathered the said resource you lug it over to your processing station ( smelter, stone shop etc etc) and convert it into a processed resource ( bars bricks boards etc ) this will encompass 1.5 percent of your crafting time. Than you will construct a product for either an order of exp. This will encompass the other 0.5 percent of your crafting time. However MOST of the time the finished product will take the form of a tool weapon or armor piece that you construct and then deconstruct to get additional exp until you have expended all your processed resources. This process of construction and deconstruction will encompass 98 percent of what you do as a crafter with the other 2 percent selling to other players. You can debate me all you like but I took my weaponsmith to level 85 and I must have constructed and deconstructed well over a million fine dirks from various metals..... very very unrealistic and shows no depth or character to the system. In essence AE has made crafting too generic and it can become a brind unmatched in the MMORPG world. THis was the first game I fell asleep playing and I have played a lot of MMO's. To add some depth and immersion to the system they need to introduce Item decay and quality levels so that a high level crafter actually means something. Right now there are so many 2nd hand products running around the game that only the most high end of crafters get any orders and even then it isn't much.
Player housing and building is perhaps the only area where HZ is unique. But you will quickly find out that the plot system is very unbalanced and penalizes those that did not to the 10,000 runs to the pawnbroker dance. Housing as it is is NOTHING what istaria.com says it is. None of it say for industrial buildings serves any purpose. There is no functionality to it all say for eye candy and there ARE NO DOORS IN THE GAME AT ALL PERIOD. So its just another time sink really and i do not believe they will ever get the system to what they have advertised it as. They recently tried to get Silos working in the game ( a storage building the ONLY storage building ) and it brought their woefully under powered Database to its knees.
Game engine... everything about HZ is third party NOTHING has been created from scratch in house. From the Database ( which isnt even the industry standard for MMO's ) to the graphics engine is third party. So all they did was slap a front end on the game and thats it. Its also Not up to the task in handling what they require of the game. Right now across all servers the most people that will ever be on is 350 per server. With that little number of people Database lag still occurs on a regular basis and if more than 20 percent of the playerbase is setting up their plots the community manager system slows down to a crawl. Can you imagine what the game would be like if there was 1500 people per server playing at a time ? it would be unbearable. So yes they tout that lag has gone down since december BUT THATS ONLY BECAUSE 70 PERCENT of the ORIGINAL playerbase numbers have left. Should people actually get suckered into coming back to that game its going to be pandamonium as the servers and the database will come crashing down.
In short HZ is still another 6 months away from being decent and definitely not worth the purchase of a $37.00 box and $12.95 a month fee. All you have left is rabid fanidiots who continue to support AE's incompetance ( see the recent plot release of cancelled accounts was a disaster the whole system is broken and they all went home for the weekend ).
My best advice is that DO NOT GO BY ISTARIA.COM cause even now after 6 months HZ is NOT what Istaria.com says it is and you will be sorely disappointed. Try the 7 day free trial but know this that is not enough time to experience what the game is at this time. You will need to spend some money to learn if it fits you or not.
I had high hopes for this game and none the less despite this review I will keep an eye on it. In hopes that it becomes what they originally advertised it to be.
I'm just gonna say that Horizons probably has one of the best crafting systems out there for mmorpgs, but there was supposed to be alot more to Horizons than what they've given us. They promised more content, but it never came.
Originally posted by Matrim_Cauthon I'm just gonna say that Horizons probably has one of the best crafting systems out there for mmorpgs, but there was supposed to be alot more to Horizons than what they've given us. They promised more content, but it never came.
UO's system kicks the crap out of HZ's. Its too bad that UO cant be found in a current gen MMORPG setup. HZ's crafting system is boring and bland. For the first 40 levels its interesting. after that its the same old same old.
Is Horizons any good? I'd have to say it has the potential to be, with some major changes.
1) Fill in the game world with more content. The success of other games like Everquest and UO was that the world seemed to hold endless mystery, not just be some big empty collection of zones.
2) Get rid of some strange, non-intuitive combat abilities like "green stance", "red stance", etc. They just don't click.
3) Advance the graphics somewhat so that weapons can at least be sheathed.
4) Allow for item drops. While crafting is nice, it should not be the ONLY source of equipment.
I hated the crafting in HZ. At first it was kinda OK until the new wore off but here are my reasons for not liking it.
You open a window to do everything and it seems like data entry.
There are many drops from MOB's that can be used in crafting but you can't keep it because the bank vault is so small. You are constantly faced with getting rid of things you would like to keep. Actually it doesn't matter because the value of most the stuff is almost nil. That is unless you at at the very pinnacle of your profession and there is huge competition. Since hundreds of most items can be made with just click or two, anything except the absolute top of the line is pretty much worthless.
There is a lack of in-game instructions on how to make more complicated items and the interface is not intuitive.
The concept of making items and immediately destroying them for the salvage value seemed artifical to me, there are even charts to see the most efficient items to make and destroy.
The answer is neither yes or no. It really depends on yourself.
I like it, but it still has many flaws. The crafting system is very good, very detailed with alot of options. The adventure system lacks depth imho. Too few monsters too far between.
Take The Bartle Test to find out about what kind of MUD gamer you are . An Explorer type of gamer will probably like this game, achievers *could* like it, if they are into crafting. I wouldn't propose this game to socializers, as it is missing taverns and/or central points to meet up. Also, the chat isnt really socializer friendly, at least not for me. Too many windows start to clutter up your screen pretty fast ( I myself using 1280x1024 on a 17" TFT ) . Killers will, naturally, hate this game . No PvP, you see
The grafics are beautifully done, on both the land and the creatures.
Content is still a bit scarce if you have played since beta ( like I did ), but they are working on that non-stop.
The worst problems with lag, bad framerate and database issues are solved.
BIG PRO are the ongoing events, although those are more for the advanced player ( Like in pretty much every other MMORPG ).
If you have been with HZ since the start, you will pretty much be tired of it by now, although it still has alot of active subscribers from the start. But that is because of the many issues one had tobear in the last 7 months.
If , like the original poster, you are new to the game you will almost 100% certainly have a good time for a few months, my personal opinion being about 2-4 month for the hardcore gamer playing everyday to 4-7 month for the casual gamer for the NOW existing content.
If the manage to adress some of the more annoying issues right now ( like walls not blocking mobs ) I guess HZ will more than survive the initial shockwave of WoW and EQ2 and will start to grow in its customer base again.
Comments
Answer to original question is NO
I played in beta and then the free month in official version.
The game is not what it promises.
Things they advertise is not there. Its still in beta phase in my opinion.
Allthough it has great graphics thats all. Its just very boring game.
Komu
Komu
its not a easy game u can't just go in and become superman over night it can be a hard game lots of killing and getting exp to level if u don't set up at macro like most do u get bord after a while like I did.
Its a crafters Haven u can make loads of stuff and [I still keep up to date with patchs] its getting better with dye and stuff
Its a complex game
Theres loads of schools to join once u pass a skill level u realy have to read up on it before joining any realy I mean u can join all of them but makes it harder tp level them up because ur ratting goes up [Your Overall Level | Not Your School Level]
The graphics while ok are not great AC2 has better and this game only just came out but was being made for longer the world is huge and looks good its when u look at player models it gets let down.
Saying that the magic effects are great I realy liked them
Lets hope when they update AC1 is looks better then this
Dreigns
Old Beta Tester -
AC1,AC2,JumpGate,Earth&Beyound,Horizons,Wish,The Saga of Ryzom,Lineage II
Dreigns
Old Beta Tester -
AC1,AC2,JumpGate,Earth&Beyound,
Horizons,Wish,The Saga of Ryzom,
Lineage II,City Of Heroes
While I still would NOT yet recommend Horizons, and I'm not subscribed to it again myself, I think that in fairness I should mention that AE is making noticeable improvements.
I'm reading that combat is improving quite a bit, and AE is currently tweaking additional exp bonuses. You'll want to keep your eye on this because they could easily turn this into something that's more of a pain than a gain.
Dragons have also appeared to be getting a lot of loving, though based on what I've been reading I wouldn't yet say that they're worth playing. Adult dragons still hit softer than a biped for example - but, they have removed automatic hoard drain and it now only drains when you use special attacks. For example, Vital Strike is now called Silver Strike (if I recall correctly) and each use of the attack consumes "X" ammount of hoard.
High hoard value items are also going to be added to the game and are apparently on blight. These items may be rare drops.
The caveat : Take the pathetically low damage out put of dragon melee damage and add that with the need to use special attacks to do any meaningful damage to your target, and you have a situation where you are still going to be consuming hoard on a nearly constant basis. The high hoard value drops MAY help, but their drop rate may be too infrequent to off set the large drain.
So, in essence, the dragons may still be in the same boat that they've always been in, only with a bit more interactivity and planning during a fight. However, I am not playing and this is only my perception of what I read. How I interpret information given, and how it actually plays out, may be completely different from one another.
Ask your friendly neighborhood subscribed dragon for more specific details.
The ultimate point to all of this is that AE - whether it be by desperation or accident bathroom slippage - are apparently doing a complete 180 and SEEM to be heading in a good direction.
Will it be enough to compare to WoW and EQ 2? Personally, I don't think so, but that's the lovely thing about opinions...
~Mysk
EDIT: "blight" is the test server.
http://www.himysk.com/blog
New here but I thought I would put my 2 cents in...
I have played UO, AC1, Evercrack, Anarchy online, Starwars galaxies......
the only game I played longer than 3 months is AC...
I don't know if any of you guys remeber AC in the early days... but it was a great game....
great concept.. great system... the graphics where poor but the gamplay made up for it....
even on 56k never had to much of a lag issue.....
and then they nerfed everything....
I quit AC...
I played SWG.... had almost mastered architect..... but the economy was shot to hell....
and then they nerfed architects......
I quit SWG....
I have only been playing horizons for 5 days so far on the 7 day trial.... but I am not going to cancel my subscription...
The game so far is in-depth in everything the other games are lacking...
The quests are varried, and sometimes very difficult to complete. (adds to the fun)
There is multiclassing and mastering... I have a level 14 dryad on shadow... who is also a level 9 druid, level 5 cleric, level 5 warrior.... not all the skills from the different classes carry over... but it is very nice to be able to heal yourself......
I duno... I was very hopefull for this game quit a while ago... while it was still in development... I even joined a Pre-Guild....
Yes... this game probably should still be in beta for a few of the things listed above...
But I would definitly rate this one higher than all the rest of the games I have played so far... with the exception of AC early on if the graphics of AC where the same as horizons...
Ohh and the music is killer....... very very well done....
quo
Because of this trend (Pushing games out before they're "Complete") that the market now shares most of the games truly aren't complete on the market for 6-8 months after going live. I would say that if you are highly interested in a game and it was distasteful at first, then I would hold off on having a complete view of the game until you try back after 6-8 months of it being on the market.
Anarchy Online, Asherons Call 2, ShadowBane, SWG (which still has some issues yet) and the original EverQuest. These are a few big name games that really didn't come out of their hiding place for a long while, their start was rocky but then it peaked. So, just give the game some time and then judge it!
- MMORPG.COM -
KillerTwinkie - That one guy who used to mod mmorpg.com's forums.
Played the game for 2 Months, just too many bugs and other problems. Now they are offering the game for free for a 7 day time frame. Don't waste your time on it, currently only 300-400 players on each server, I give it at the most 1 year and it'll be gone.
I can see how that could be the case for some games, depending on the aspects that are distasteful. There are bugs, class balances, and performance issues to work out, though I doubt they'll ever fix text overlay so it doesn't kill your FPS. But there are also times when there are aspects of a game you find distasteful that deal with the mechanics and design of the game. While I still watch the Horizons forums, in hopes they will turn things around, and I can regain my few friends still left in game, I think the design of the game will ever keep me from completely enjoying it.
Horizons was the second game that I played "hardcore" from the start and stayed with for at least a few months. The other was Shadowbane. To tell you the truth, I enjoyed SB much more and had a much tougher time giving it up, even when I wasn't really enjoying myself. The reason for it was two-fold, PvP and customization. I don't think that PvP is necessary in an MMORPG, but it at least gives players something to do. In HZ, once you get to high levels, there is nothing to do but to start a new class, potentially gimping yourself once the softcap is raised, or start a new character. If there was PvP in HZ, which the FAQs still mention they are developing as a seperate module, it would at least give people something to do. As it stands, to keep people interested, they add in a new quest or event every week or two, but generally they only occupy people for a day or two, and sometimes only for a few hours.
Even more important is the ability to customize your character. As it stands, multiclassing is the only real way of specialization in HZ, and most people specialize the same way (cleric or healer as a secondary class to everything else). You get one training point per level, which increases 1 stat that's automatically getting raised by 7-11 a level. For most those who have played since release, self-sufficiency is the key. Large groups generally kill adventuring XP, and crafters generally multiclass to become self-sufficient for the long grinding process. With a mulitude of skills from multiclassing, there really isn't a challenge in the game, which further encourages soloing. It results in turning a cooperative, non-PvP game into a SP game with chat windows. And those chats were almost entirely lowbies asking for gear or ooc.
On a side note, despite the crafting focus of Horizons, players had more control of the economy in Shadowbane. To put things in perspective, I took 7 crafting classes above L50 in HZ(1 resourcing, 3 end goods, 3 building classes), making me the highest rated crafter on the server at the time. In SB, I ran one of the best stocked towns (all vendors, no trainers, all fully levelled, mostly dwarven smiths). While both markets seemed broken (rapid inflation after the first month or two), in part due to neither having an armor decay system (SB allowed items to get "permanently" damaged, but would repair themselves after server reboots), the process in SB was at least more enjoyable, trying to roll items people might want to purchase, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of, and creating markup schemes on vendors. HZ involved almost all taking orders for specific items, then either dropping what you were doing to go make them, or trying to meet up with someone later. Without adequate storage space every held order becomes painful. A lot of people seem to claim that HZ is more of a crafting game than an adventuring game, which is true, but the implication that you'd like this game if you like crafting seems completely off to me.
One final comment about HZ, one that I think could possibly be fix, but probably won't be, is the distribution of mobs and resources. There are multiple areas for tier1, at the noob island and around some of the NPC towns. The tier2 resources are located almost entirely an Minor Aradoth, with a few here and there on the main island. With tier3, everything is around Harro. Tier4 is located all SE of ML. Mobs are a little more spread out, but generally all high level mobs are in the same general area. With the Dragon RoP and the western Deadlands, this has changed a little bit, but as of a month ago, most high level XPing was done either doing "Kill 30 Cursed Wolves" quests over and over, or hunting down the handful of L80 mobs in the Eastern Deadlands. In other games, you can find pockets of mobs here and there, different zones with a variety of different level mobs, but here it's just lacking. Many people have stated before that it is a large, but empty world. To elaborate on that, it's a empty world with a lot of mountains which force you to take one path or another, limiting your options as to where to go. You shouldn't be forced to go to one place in the world, while walking along the same path to get there, just bcause you want to level.
HZ is a mediocore game at best. But really its a very shallow game. It has no character no depth and if you scratch past the surface there is NOTHING of substance there.
The adventuring system reminds me of whack a mole. No immersion no atmosphere and the Withered Aegis is a poor attempt at creating a dynamic foe for the playerbase to battle in place of PVP which their engine can't handle. There are perhaps 6 mob models total in the game and after awhile you are just fighting higher versions of the same mob you did at 20. There is NOTHING for the level 80 plus adventurer in the game. The new combat system has helped a bit but it still doesnt resolve the reptitiveness and boring factor of combat. There are no tactics in this game its just all clicking.
The crafting system is a joke. One sword is the same as the other. Nothing is unique and a level 85 Crafter in one school is the same as a level 100 crafter in that same school. The tricking system for weapons ? dont go by istaria.com there NOT millions of combinations for different looks. There are at most 18 per weapon ( tier III and up nothing for tier 1 and II ) and at the very least 2 or 3 on the low end a far far far cry from what they claim it to be. Armor customization ? not in game yet and I doubt they will ever add that because quite frankly their game engine CANNOT handle the added stress. You can now dye your armor but the process of just getting the dye is enough to turn most people off to the task. The crafting system is as follows. You gather a resource from a number of resource fields in the game this entails standing there wacking at a resource node and depending on your skill in gathering that particular resource will determine how much you get per whack. This by far will encompass 98 percent of your crafting... yes yes the fan twits of the game will try and tell you other wise but I put on 520 levels in crafting in that game I am more qualified than most in that game to tell you all what its like... you will SPEND 98 percent of your time gathering resources. Its pretty simple and no real danger in doing it.. pretty dumbed down system and nothing like the immersiveness of UO or WoW for getting resources. Once you have gathered the said resource you lug it over to your processing station ( smelter, stone shop etc etc) and convert it into a processed resource ( bars bricks boards etc ) this will encompass 1.5 percent of your crafting time. Than you will construct a product for either an order of exp. This will encompass the other 0.5 percent of your crafting time. However MOST of the time the finished product will take the form of a tool weapon or armor piece that you construct and then deconstruct to get additional exp until you have expended all your processed resources. This process of construction and deconstruction will encompass 98 percent of what you do as a crafter with the other 2 percent selling to other players. You can debate me all you like but I took my weaponsmith to level 85 and I must have constructed and deconstructed well over a million fine dirks from various metals..... very very unrealistic and shows no depth or character to the system. In essence AE has made crafting too generic and it can become a brind unmatched in the MMORPG world. THis was the first game I fell asleep playing and I have played a lot of MMO's. To add some depth and immersion to the system they need to introduce Item decay and quality levels so that a high level crafter actually means something. Right now there are so many 2nd hand products running around the game that only the most high end of crafters get any orders and even then it isn't much.
Player housing and building is perhaps the only area where HZ is unique. But you will quickly find out that the plot system is very unbalanced and penalizes those that did not to the 10,000 runs to the pawnbroker dance. Housing as it is is NOTHING what istaria.com says it is. None of it say for industrial buildings serves any purpose. There is no functionality to it all say for eye candy and there ARE NO DOORS IN THE GAME AT ALL PERIOD. So its just another time sink really and i do not believe they will ever get the system to what they have advertised it as. They recently tried to get Silos working in the game ( a storage building the ONLY storage building ) and it brought their woefully under powered Database to its knees.
Game engine... everything about HZ is third party NOTHING has been created from scratch in house. From the Database ( which isnt even the industry standard for MMO's ) to the graphics engine is third party. So all they did was slap a front end on the game and thats it. Its also Not up to the task in handling what they require of the game. Right now across all servers the most people that will ever be on is 350 per server. With that little number of people Database lag still occurs on a regular basis and if more than 20 percent of the playerbase is setting up their plots the community manager system slows down to a crawl. Can you imagine what the game would be like if there was 1500 people per server playing at a time ? it would be unbearable. So yes they tout that lag has gone down since december BUT THATS ONLY BECAUSE 70 PERCENT of the ORIGINAL playerbase numbers have left. Should people actually get suckered into coming back to that game its going to be pandamonium as the servers and the database will come crashing down.
In short HZ is still another 6 months away from being decent and definitely not worth the purchase of a $37.00 box and $12.95 a month fee. All you have left is rabid fanidiots who continue to support AE's incompetance ( see the recent plot release of cancelled accounts was a disaster the whole system is broken and they all went home for the weekend ).
My best advice is that DO NOT GO BY ISTARIA.COM cause even now after 6 months HZ is NOT what Istaria.com says it is and you will be sorely disappointed. Try the 7 day free trial but know this that is not enough time to experience what the game is at this time. You will need to spend some money to learn if it fits you or not.
I had high hopes for this game and none the less despite this review I will keep an eye on it. In hopes that it becomes what they originally advertised it to be.
Is Horizons any good? I'd have to say it has the potential to be, with some major changes.
1) Fill in the game world with more content. The success of other games like Everquest and UO was that the world seemed to hold endless mystery, not just be some big empty collection of zones.
2) Get rid of some strange, non-intuitive combat abilities like "green stance", "red stance", etc. They just don't click.
3) Advance the graphics somewhat so that weapons can at least be sheathed.
4) Allow for item drops. While crafting is nice, it should not be the ONLY source of equipment.
I hated the crafting in HZ. At first it was kinda OK until the new wore off but here are my reasons for not liking it.
You open a window to do everything and it seems like data entry.
There are many drops from MOB's that can be used in crafting but you can't keep it because the bank vault is so small. You are constantly faced with getting rid of things you would like to keep. Actually it doesn't matter because the value of most the stuff is almost nil. That is unless you at at the very pinnacle of your profession and there is huge competition. Since hundreds of most items can be made with just click or two, anything except the absolute top of the line is pretty much worthless.
There is a lack of in-game instructions on how to make more complicated items and the interface is not intuitive.
The concept of making items and immediately destroying them for the salvage value seemed artifical to me, there are even charts to see the most efficient items to make and destroy.
Rather good game. Nice graphic. Alot of different chars. Nice crafting system and skills. But the battles is really boring.
The answer is neither yes or no. It really depends on yourself.
I like it, but it still has many flaws.
The crafting system is very good, very detailed with alot of options.
The adventure system lacks depth imho. Too few monsters too far between.
Take The Bartle Test to find out about what kind of MUD gamer you are .
An Explorer type of gamer will probably like this game, achievers *could* like it, if they are into crafting.
I wouldn't propose this game to socializers, as it is missing taverns and/or central points to meet up. Also, the chat isnt really socializer friendly, at least not for me. Too many windows start to clutter up your screen pretty fast ( I myself using 1280x1024 on a 17" TFT ) .
Killers will, naturally, hate this game . No PvP, you see
The grafics are beautifully done, on both the land and the creatures.
Content is still a bit scarce if you have played since beta ( like I did ), but they are working on that non-stop.
The worst problems with lag, bad framerate and database issues are solved.
BIG PRO are the ongoing events, although those are more for the advanced player ( Like in pretty much every other MMORPG ).
If you have been with HZ since the start, you will pretty much be tired of it by now, although it still has alot of active subscribers from the start. But that is because of the many issues one had tobear in the last 7 months.
If , like the original poster, you are new to the game you will almost 100% certainly have a good time for a few months, my personal opinion being about 2-4 month for the hardcore gamer playing everyday to 4-7 month for the casual gamer for the NOW existing content.
If the manage to adress some of the more annoying issues right now ( like walls not blocking mobs ) I guess HZ will more than survive the initial shockwave of WoW and EQ2 and will start to grow in its customer base again.
Avandol Sulrissil
The Ugly
Avandol Sulrissil
The Ugly